Uszkodzenia środowiska leśnego w wyniku turystyki i rekreacji

The purpose of the paper was to determine the impact of the most popular form of recreation and tourism (i.e. walking) on the environment in selected forests that were made available by the means of educational trails. The research was carried out in south−eastern Poland, in the forest reserves Bór (RB) and Polanki (RP) as well as in the economic forests of the Kołaczyce (NK) and Brzozów (NB) forest districts. A 1−km−long transect was established on both sides along each educational trail with control points determined every 10 m. In total 200 points were distinguished and data on the degree of soil damage was collected at research plots with an area of 1 m2 each. Based on these 200 plots, damage of young trees and soil were measured. The studies indicate that the damage to the soil and trees in the immediate vicinity of the routes available for recreation and tourism are very large. In all objects, 53−99% of the soil surface and 28−56% of trees were damaged. Slightly damaged soil earned the highest fraction on all studied trails (for NK it was 62%, RB – 49%, RP – 35.5% and NB – 26.5%). The most severe soil damage (packed soil) was recorded in as many as 37% of the measurement points in RB, 9.5% in RP and NB and 7% in NK. The most common form of damage to the trees was bark rub without damaging the pulp or partial damage to the needles or leaves. In case of NK, such damage was observed in 41% of trees, while 30.4% of RB, NB in 20.9% and RP in 13.9%. Trees ranked as the 2 most severe degrees of damage accounted for as much as 9.2% in NK, while 7.2% of RP, 6.4% in RB and 5.6% in NB. The damage level of the examined components of the forest environment determined in the study as a result of tourist and recreational use should be considered as high.